» Florence Bloghttp://www.kursonia.com
Fri, 31 Jul 2015 15:31:42 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.3Discover Florence with a professional guidehttp://www.kursonia.com/discover-florence-with-a-professional-guide/
http://www.kursonia.com/discover-florence-with-a-professional-guide/#commentsThu, 13 Mar 2014 12:26:37 +0000http://www.kursonia.com/?p=3020
If you have a few days to stay in Florence and you wish to visit the most interesting and beautiful places around the city, ...]]>

If you have a few days to stay in Florence and you wish to visit the most interesting and beautiful places around the city, the best solution is to book a guided tour. A professional guide, in fact, can show you all the masterpieces of the city by giving you interesting explanations that will help you to understand the creation processes of the artworks and to learn about the lives of their authors. You can also get to know about the many traditional restaurants and cafeterias, where you can taste some delicious local recipes.

During April, May and June Hotel Kursaal exceptionally gives its guests the opportunity to participate to a free guided tour with a professional guide of Florence. An exclusive service and a wonderful experience: a walk in the amazing streets of the historic center of the city together with a highly prepared professional guide who will be able to amuse you with stories, curiosities and legends. It’s really a unique opportunity!

The free tour is reserved to those who book for Sunday and Monday nights and will be done once a week, on Monday mornings. As it is just one group of people, the guided tour will be in English, in order to let the most people understand. The chosen days are:

By exploring the extraordinary mobility of people, information and knowledge, the artists taking part in this exhibition encourage visitors to re-think the many real and imagined boarders that so often divide us.

The exhibition is best described as a journey of discovery that allows for a more critical understanding of the world we live as seen through the eyes of the following artists: Kader Attia, Zanny Begg & Oliver Ressler, Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin, Paolo Cirio, Tadashi Kawamata, Sigalit Landau, Richard Mosse, Paulo Nazareth, Jo Ractliffe, The Cool Couple.

]]>http://www.kursonia.com/unstable_territories_florence/feed/0Families at Museo a Firenze!http://www.kursonia.com/families-at-museo-a-firenze/
http://www.kursonia.com/families-at-museo-a-firenze/#commentsMon, 30 Sep 2013 11:08:42 +0000http://www.kursonia.com/?p=2705
Ever thought about spending Sunday at the museum with the kids?
On Sunday, October 13, you can do just that and more! A number of ...]]>

Ever thought about spending Sunday at the museum with the kids?

On Sunday, October 13, you can do just that and more! A number of Florentine museums are participating in the National Day of Families at the Museum.

This means more access to impressive works of art and free activities for kids. A great way to spend your Sunday, it is also a rare opportunity for young people to learn more about our city.

Museums participating in this initiative include:

Museo Nazionale Alinari della Fotografia,

Palazzo Strozzi,

Museo Stefano Bardini,

Museo Salvatore Ferraganamo,

Museo di Palazzo Vecchio,

Museo Archeologico Nazionale,

Il Giardino di Archimede,

Museo Galileo

… and many others in Vinci, Borgo San Lorenzo, Fiesole, and around Florence. … Find more details here!

]]>http://www.kursonia.com/families-at-museo-a-firenze/feed/0Night at the Museum in Florencehttp://www.kursonia.com/night-at-the-museum-in-florence/
http://www.kursonia.com/night-at-the-museum-in-florence/#commentsMon, 23 Sep 2013 09:00:29 +0000http://www.kursonia.com/?p=2695
Saturday, September 28, 2013 will see ‘Night at the Museum’ return to Florence with 20 to 24 of the most important museums and archeological ...]]>

Saturday, September 28, 2013 will see ‘Night at the Museum’ return to Florence with 20 to 24 of the most important museums and archeological sites in Italy once again open to the public.

A series of special events will take place to celebrate the city’s contribution to the arts.

Special events in Florence will be held at:

-Uffizi Gallery

-Museum of the Medici Chapels

– Accademia Gallery will also showcase a contemporary dance performance

]]>http://www.kursonia.com/night-at-the-museum-in-florence/feed/0It’s festival time!http://www.kursonia.com/its-festival-time-florence/
http://www.kursonia.com/its-festival-time-florence/#commentsWed, 18 Sep 2013 08:52:41 +0000http://www.kursonia.com/?p=2685
Two tasty festivals are taking place in Florence this month and we don’t want you to miss out.
The Truffle Festival, September 5 to 29, ...]]>

Two tasty festivals are taking place in Florence this month and we don’t want you to miss out.

The Truffle Festival, September 5 to 29, is on in Fiesole and the surrounding areas with daily tastings of speciality truffles from 7.30 pm.

The traditional Impruneta Grape Festival will be held from September 7 to 29, with events, parties and regular food tastings all on the menu. Click here for more details http://www.lafestadelluva.it/

]]>http://www.kursonia.com/its-festival-time-florence/feed/0Event in Florence: Calcio Storico Fiorentino 2013http://www.kursonia.com/event_florence_calcio_storico/
http://www.kursonia.com/event_florence_calcio_storico/#commentsThu, 13 Jun 2013 13:21:41 +0000http://www.kursonia.com/?p=2440
From June 15 to 24, Florence will host the traditional Calcio Storico Fiorentino.
Four teams, representing the city’s four main districts, will compete in Santa ...]]>

From June 15 to 24, Florence will host the traditional Calcio Storico Fiorentino.

Four teams, representing the city’s four main districts, will compete in Santa Croce square.

Players will wear uniforms dating back to the 16th century and make their entrance onto the playing field in spectacular fashion in the Historical Parade of the Florentine Republic along with 500 people.

The final game will be held on June 24 when Florence celebrates the feast day of St. John, the city’s patron saint, with parades, special events and fireworks.

There is no doubt that anyone coming to Italy is fascinated by art (60% of the world’s artistic heritage is in Italy) and by the beauty and diversity of nature (in short distance you can have mountains, hills and sea). But nobody misses the opportunity to taste our food, finally in the original version.

Food in Italy is not only and simply nourishment, it is a fundamental aspect of our culture. Perhaps it has got so many variations, so many colors and is made so genuine, healthy and beautifully because we give so much importance to it. It ‘s like as if food concentrated our being Italian. We have transformed a necessity into a beautiful, cosy and friendly moment of life.

Nobody in Italy cooks only to eat.
If you want to test this, just start a conversation with any Italian on any type of food. Well, you will see that the conversation will be long and passionate. You’ll learn why for that type of dish you absolutely need those particular onions and that if you really want them to be the best, then you have to go to that shop because the owner personally knows the farmer that produce them.
Anyone in Italy you can tell you that pasta with tomato sauce tastes better if done with San Marzano tomatoes because they give that special flavor to the dish and they can tell you exactly when basil has to be added so to keep intact its smell and taste .. Food is an amazing topic of conversation!

Food is also a social event because it is the moment when the family gets together. So even if the hectic modern life obliges us to have lunch outside the house (at bars, restaurants, canteens, eating a sandwich in the street …) dinner is still sacred. You have to be home by that time, you’re presence is requested! The Italian table is always well laid, with many courses and change of dishes each time: first and second course, vegetables and fruit or dessert. Normally, every day (with several variations of course but basically this way) .
The table has to be beautiful, well presented and also food must be beautiful and well presented (it is taken for granted that it tastes good).
If it is beautiful you’re happier and you enjoy your food more.
No coincidence that Italian say: “The eye also wants its part”.

Have you ever asked yourself why hotels are classified with the stars?
Who invented this system (now widely known and accepted) to enable us to understand fairly easily and quite immediately what kind of structure there is in front of us?

The origin of this symbol is ancient and brings us back to medieval Florence. “Hotels” arised spontaneously because they were in strategic locations for business and trade. They had convenient location for the travellers or they were close to places of particular importance in a city. The “hotel” not only offered shelter for the night to the people and to their animals (the barn, the garage of the time was then, as it is now, of foundamental importance) but also had a “restaurant” where hot meals were provided after a tiring and sometimes difficult journey.

Florence was ruled from the mid 1200 by the ARTI (sort of trade unions) and in the city one of the 14 minor Arti was the Hotel Arte.Since 1300 there was even a specific regulation on the hospitality for the city of Florence and the countryside. It contained a set of rules that covered both the relationships between the different categories and the behavior to have with customers, with the intention of offering an image of order and decorum. Do you know which was the symbol of the Hotel Arte, the symbol that you could find on every house that offered such professional and friendly hospitality? A star.

]]>http://www.kursonia.com/the-star-and-the-hotel-in-florence/feed/0Hotel Kursaal & Ausonia: why this name?http://www.kursonia.com/hotel-kursaal-ausonia-why-this-name/
http://www.kursonia.com/hotel-kursaal-ausonia-why-this-name/#commentsWed, 16 Jan 2013 09:36:39 +0000http://www.kursonia.com/?p=2238
Many guests that come to stay in our hotel ask me what its name means.
The question is not strange because it is a long and complex name, but we know now and we knew when we chose it.
The story begins long time ago, in the past century (about 1950) when a young couple decided to open a hotel in Florence, in the same building that previously was a guest house named Ausonia.
The young and ambitious couple looked around and in their opinion, shared with many others, the most beautiful hotel in the area was the Kursaal Hotel in Montecatini Terme. A smart luxury hotel whose guests used to go to the city’s thermal baths, not far from Florence.
They thought that name could be a lucky one, so they gave it to their 9 rooms hotel, which they were going to open.
Kursaal is a German name which means: “treatment room”, which has nothing in common with the hotel, but who cares?
My husband Giovanpaolo bought the two hotels (the Kursaal and the Ausonia) in 1992. I came here to stay at the beginning of 1993. It was love at first sight, we met and we fell in love – 6 months later we got married.
When we renewed and modified the Kursaal Hotel (2 stars) and the Ausonia Guest House (1 star) in one single 3 stars hotel, we took a very long time to choose the name.
But in the end the one that looked perfect was the name it already had, by matching the old names. We could not forget the name that made us meet!
So Kursaal (treatment room in German) and Ausonia (literary and poetic name of Italy)… Nothing could be more different than these, just like my husband and me. Maybe when you mix different things together, you have a good result: try it to believe it!!!
]]>http://www.kursonia.com/hotel-kursaal-ausonia-why-this-name/feed/0The Italian coda (the line or queue)http://www.kursonia.com/the-italian-coda-the-line-or-queue/
http://www.kursonia.com/the-italian-coda-the-line-or-queue/#commentsMon, 09 Apr 2012 09:05:00 +0000http://www.kursonia.com/?p=1648

How do you line up in Italy?
First of all we must understand what we mean with the word “coda” (translation for line/queue).

“Coda” in Italian refers to the tail of the animal and therefore by definition something that moves here and there. Something that is not static, straight and perfect as “the line” of the Anglo Saxon world.

Visually, the Italian queue is chaotically beautiful because it is not clear where it starts nor where it ends and so the only way to understand when your turn is, is to raise a little your voice and ask: “Who is the last one?”.

Once understood, check everybody else around you and only then follow what the person that said “I am” does: your position has to be firmly maintained because there is always somebody that trys to fit in.

Experiencing the “coda” is a unique Italian experience, that I suggest everybody to give a try.

I am talking about the queues that Italians do and not the ones you can find by museum (where there are only foreigners). I am talking about hospital’, bakery’s, post office’s queues…
When in line Italian gossip or better they communicate. It is inconceivable for an Italian to stay quiet, to sit in complete silence for 10 minutes: how boring!

It is necessary to say something, talk about anything: illnesses, the phenomenal medicine, children, politics, government….

In short, the queue is a great place to understand what Italians think important for them and Italy.

The longer you wait, the greater is the opportunity to participate to the most interesting conversations. This way you make sure and will understand that standing in the “coda” is much more fun than simply wait for your turn.